Causal dimensions of college students' perceptions of physical symptoms

Abstract

According to attribution theory, controllability, locus, and stability are important dimensions underlying causal explanations. The extent to which these theoretical dimensions underlie lay explanations for physical symptoms is unclear. Accordingly, in this study, attributes relevant to the lay public were empirically derived using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. Undergraduates (N = 194) provided similarity judgments for 18 potential causes of physical discomfort. The MDS analysis yielded a three-dimensional solution. The first dimension captured the distinction between "physical" and "nonphysical" causes. The second dimension distinguished either "variable" versus "stable" causes or those that are "controllable" versus "uncontrollable" by health care professionals. The third dimension differentiated causes under "low" versus "high" personal control. These findings empirically confirm the theoretically proposed dimensions of "personal control" and "stability" and suggest the utility of considering the "physical/nonphysical" and "controllability by health care professional" distinctions in future work on attributions in the health domain.

Chronic Pain in the Classroom: Teachers’ Attributions About the Causes of Chronic Pain*

“…Previous research suggests that laypeople tend to take a dualistic view of others’ illness symptoms, regarding causes of symptoms as either physical or psychological 25 . Mothers of children with chronic pain may be the exception, as past research reveals that mothers are more likely to integrate physical and psychological attributions for children’s pain 15 .…”

“…Previous research suggests that laypeople tend to take a dualistic view of others' illness symptoms, regarding causes of symptoms as either physical or psychological. 25 Mothers of children with chronic pain may be the exception, as past research reveals that mothers are more likely to integrate physical and psychological attributions for children's pain. 15 The current study suggests that teachers-frequently a child's next most significant caregiver after parents-do not as commonly apply this integrated framework in understanding pediatric chronic pain problems.…”

Attributions, Stress, and Work-Related Low Back Pain

“…(4) It is believed that stress and attributions are related, and an understanding of this relationship may be useful in limiting or preventing LBP. (20) Both stress (4;21) and attributions (22) result from exposure to other factors such as physical workload and psychological or environmental stimuli. A person attributing LBP to factors that are external, permanent, and uncontrollable would be expected to have psychological stress.…”

What Accounts for the Appeal of Complementary/Alternative Medicine, and What Makes Complementary/Alternative Medicine "Alternative"?

“…These methodologies have been used successfully to clarify the basis on which people make distinctions between various classes of health-related stimuli, including nursing interventions, 57 coping strategies, 58 contraceptive methods, 48,49 causal explanations of physical symptoms, 59 and elements of the doctor-patient relationship. 60 One relative advantage of free-clustering tasks and multidimensional scaling approaches over 3-way rating scale techniques is that because they do not involve experimenter-generated rating scales, they impose minimal a priori structure on participants' judgments.…”